After The Engagement
by Sophia Hawkins
Summary: Oneshot. Set during "The Engagement". What happened between the policeman telling Blanche about Harry, and the events of the other episodes?


After The Engagement

"Well, that's the last of it," Rose announced as they finished taking down the decorations for Blanche's wedding.

"I'm exhausted," Dorothy grumbled as she plopped down on the couch and brought her feet up on the coffee table, "This whole day has been a nightmare." She turned and looked at Rose sitting on the chair by the couch and said, "I guess I really owe you an apology, Rose, you were right."

"About what?" Rose asked.

"About Harry, you said Blanche shouldn't marry him and you were right, you knew," Dorothy sat up straight and put her feet on the floor and half turned towards Rose, "Nobody knew, _how_ could you have known?"

"I didn't know," Rose said, "I just had a hunch, I _told_ you."

"I know," Dorothy lowly admitted, "In hindsight it probably wouldn't have made any difference if I'd let you tell her. There wasn't a wedding anyway."

"I _told_ you that man was a scuzz ball," Sophia wagged a finger at her daughter as she entered the room.

Dorothy looked over at her mother, then over at Rose, and asked, "How is it _both_ of you were right about Harry?" She turned to Sophia again and said, "Ma, you'd _just_ met him, how could _you_ have known?"

"A mother knows," Sophia answered as she sat down on the couch beside her, "Why do you think I kept telling you _not_ to go out with Stan? I told you he was a yutz, but did you listen?"

Dorothy looked straight ahead and shook her head, "No, Ma."

"And you've been paying for it ever since, haven't you?" Sophia asked.

Dorothy nodded, "Yes, Ma, if I hadn't gone out with Stanley, I wouldn't have gotten pregnant, I wouldn't have had to get married, I wouldn't have spent 38 years with a detestable pig, he wouldn't have left me high and dry for a blonde stewardess half his age, and I could've put you in a more secure nursing home that's fireproof."

Sophia made a face and looked the other way.

Coco came into the living room and announced, "Blanche still won't come out, I'm going to make some tea, anybody want some?"

"Sure," Rose said.

"That'd be nice," Dorothy agreed.

"I'll go with you," Sophia said as she got up, "I'll teach you how to _really_ make tea with some kick to it."

"You mean with chamomile?" Coco asked.

"No, I mean with large amounts of brandy poured in it, come on," Sophia waved an arm as she pushed the kitchen's swinging door open.

It was just Dorothy and Rose in the living room now, Rose got up from the chair and sat down beside Dorothy on the couch.

"This is so depressing," Rose said, "Weddings are supposed to be happy."

"You can't be happy with a bigamist," Dorothy said, "Eventually the truth comes out, in the long run it's better Blanche found out before they got married."

"I suppose so," Rose sighed, "I also guess in a weird way I got what I wanted."

"What do you mean?" Dorothy looked at her.

Rose looked to Dorothy and explained, "I didn't want Blanche to get married because I thought it meant we'd have to move out and find some other place to live…now, Blanche _isn't_ getting married and we _don't_ have to move…" she gave Dorothy a knowing look and said, "I got what I wanted, so why do I feel so lousy about it?"

"It's just bad all around," Dorothy said, "But in a few days things will be back to normal, Blanche will put this behind her and move on."

"You really think so, Dorothy?" Rose asked.

"Oh yeah, you'll see," she replied, "Blanche is resilient." A moment passed before she added, "You know, Rose, I've been thinking about what you said, about we're alone now that our kids have grown up and don't need us and our husbands are gone."

"What about it?" Rose asked.

"Honey, I think you're looking at this all wrong," Dorothy said, "Yes, our lives have changed, we don't have our husbands, our kids have lives of their own, but we're not alone, look at us, we're all still together. We've got each other."

"I know," Rose said, "But it still feels like something's missing."

"I think we're just in a rut," Dorothy told her, "Think about it, we work all day, we come home late, there's not much to do besides have dinner, watch TV and then go to bed. Honey, there's got to be more to life than that. Maybe that's the problem, we spend all day doing the things we _have_ to do, and it's only to keep our own selves above water, when we were younger, the things we _had_ to do were to take care of our families, you know, tend to the kids, get them to school, make them lunches, tend to our husbands, make them dinner…"

Rose thought about it and added, "Tend to the animals…"

Dorothy looked at Rose with a half annoyed look but responded, "Exactly, we took care of everybody else and we were so busy doing it, we got used to it, now we're on our own and it's starting to weigh on us simultaneously, how busy we are, and how we're not doing anything."

Rose thought about it for a minute and asked Dorothy, "What _should_ we be doing?"

"I don't know, something, _anything_ ," Dorothy replied, "I mean come on, we're older but we're not dead, we've still got some living to do, we might as well live."

Rose nodded as she considered it and said, "You know, I used to love bowling…maybe I'll take it up again."

"You bowl, Rose? I had no idea," Dorothy said.

"Oh yes," Rose said, "I used to be pretty good at it, of course, it was easier once I came to Miami and actually did it in a bowling alley."

Dorothy made another one of her faces when Rose said something that started off kind of sensible and the last second became dimwitted.

"What about you, Dorothy? What do you like to do for fun?" Rose asked.

Dorothy shrugged, "I don't know…actually now that I think of it…you know there _are_ a lot of concerts around here, I might start going to some of them, it would be a nice experience, the music, the excitement, I used to love going when I was younger."

"Why'd you stop?" Rose asked.

"I don't know…" Dorothy looked up suddenly, "Yes I do, Stanley convinced me they were a waste of money and that it was just as good to stay home and hear it on the radio." She shook her head grimly and said, "I'd like to strangle that man."

Rose crossed one leg over the other and leaned back on the couch and asked, "Dorothy, do you know how to dance?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I was just thinking," Rose said, "There's always so much going on at the community theatre, maybe we could try that sometime."

Dorothy nodded, "That doesn't sound like a bad idea. We could at least try it anyway…you know, this could actually be a blessing in disguise, you know, yes, our lives have changed now that we're on our own, but now our lives get to be about us and what _we_ want to do instead of what we _have_ to do for everyone else. This could really be the start of a great thing."

"Yeah, _if_ Blanche ever comes out of her room and gets over this depression she's in," Rose replied.

"She will, it'll just take some time," Dorothy told her.

* * *

A few days later after Blanche had finally come out of her room and things started getting back to normal, Dorothy entered the kitchen one evening after arriving home from work, Rose and Sophia were already there.

"Hi, Ma," Dorothy noticed that Sophia's hair now wasn't the tight style it was when she first came to the house, "Ah, you got your hair done."

"Yeah," Sophia replied, "I finally managed to get to a hairdresser today, first time I got my hair done since you locked me away in that God awful nursing home."

Dorothy rolled her eyes, "Ma, please."

"Well anyway, this is a process," Sophia said, "This is the best they could do for now, in a couple weeks I'm going back to have it done again."

"How're you going to have it done next time?" Rose asked.

"Cornrows, Rose," Sophia answered without missing a beat.

Rose made a face as she pictured that image.

Sophia explained to Dorothy, "I don't actually _like_ it yet, but it's a hell of a lot better than it was last week. Dorothy, do you know what it's like to be able to go out and get a perm for the first time in six months? Eh, look who I'm asking."

"Is there a point to this, Ma?" Dorothy asked.

"My point is when you can go and get your hair done for the first time in forever, it really makes you feel alive, it makes you feel like a new person," Sophia explained, "And tomorrow I'm having a new pair of glasses made, I'm tired of these on the chain, they make me look _old_."

"Of course, we wouldn't want that," Dorothy cynically responded.

"But on that note, Pussycat, I also want to go out and get some new clothes tomorrow," Sophia said.

"Ma, there's nothing wrong with the clothes you have now," Dorothy said.

"I'm tired of them, I need new clothes," Sophia said.

"Ma," Dorothy replied, "The clothes you have are perfectly good, you don't need new ones."

"Don't give me that," Sophia told her, "I'm a grown woman with my own money that I won at the dog track, who can make my own decisions, I want new clothes and that's that."

"No it isn't," Dorothy said, "Ma, you are currently rooming with me, we're sharing a closet, there is no _room_ for new clothes, I'm sorry."

Sophia thought about it for a minute and asked Dorothy, "So are you saying when something happens to _these_ clothes I can get new ones?"

"Yes, Ma," Dorothy said.

"Rose," Sophia pointed, "Get me the bleach."

"Hello, girls," Blanche said as she came in the back door, "What's for dinner?"

"Coco made a roast," Rose said, then looked around and realized he wasn't there, "Where is he?"

At just that moment, the kitchen door swung open and Coco entered, "Oh good, you're all here, can I speak with you girls for a moment?"

"Sure, Coco, what is it?" Dorothy asked.

"Well," he said hesitantly as he sat down at the table with them, "I've been giving this a lot of thought, now that Sophia's living here too it's getting kind of crowded around here…so I decided to move out."

"What?" the girls asked.

"Coco, you don't have to leave," Dorothy said.

"I appreciate that, Dorothy," he said, "But I've thought about this, I'll move out, and Sophia can have my room."

"Looks like mama's getting some new clothes after all," Sophia said with a smirk on her face.

"But Coco, where would you go?" Rose asked.

"Oh don't worry about me, Rose," he assured her as he stood up, "I met this marvelous guy who's looking for a roommate."

"Oh," Rose said, then her eyes widened, "Oh!", then she got a confused look and asked, "Huh?"

Blanche was still taken aback by this announcement but she said to him, "Well Coco, we're certainly going to miss you around here, but if you found somebody that you think you should be with, then we're happy for you." She went over and hugged him and then added almost as an afterthought, "Just make sure he's not involved with somebody else too."

* * *

Coco moved out two days later after the girls threw a going-away party for him. Sophia took her things from Dorothy's room and put them in her newly christened bedroom. She was still determined to get new clothes but for some reason Dorothy was still adamant about keeping the ones she already had.

That night Dorothy, Rose and Blanche all found themselves wandering out of their bedrooms around midnight, and almost walked into one another in the hall.

"What're you doing up?" Dorothy asked the others.

"Well what're you doing up?" Blanche asked.

"I couldn't sleep," she said.

"Neither could I," Rose said.

"Oh, me either," Blanche admitted, "It's just so _weird_ without Coco here now. You know, it was kind of nice having a man around the house, even if, you know."

"Even if you couldn't sleep with him?" Rose attempted to finish the sentence.

"Something like that," Blanche replied.

"I can't get used to it either," Dorothy said as she clutched her arms against her robe as if to keep it shut, "The house just seems so empty now. Come on, let's go make some coffee, I don't think we're going to be sleeping anytime soon anyway."

"I'm surprised we didn't wake up Sophia," Rose commented as they headed into the kitchen.

"Oh," Dorothy said, "It is so _nice_ not to have to share a room with Ma anymore, now I don't have to worry about her waking up every time I move in the bed."

"Well," Blanche said as she put the teakettle on, "I'm still brokenhearted about Coco leaving, but I _do_ think Sophia staying here will be a good thing. A daughter _should_ be close to her mother, I wish my mama was still alive so I could be close to her." She made a face, "Oh but I could never tell her about what happened with Harry."

"She's your mother," Rose said, "She'd understand."

"Her mother was from the south," Dorothy told Rose, "She'd understand _anything_."

Blanche disregarded the last comment and said, "Anyway, since Sophia's retired, we'd have somebody home during the day who can take our messages and maybe help out with the cooking. Dorothy," she turned to her roommate, "Is your mother a good cook?"

"Oh, Ma used to be the best," Dorothy said, then somberly added, "But I don't know since her stroke."

The kitchen door swung open and Sophia entered the room in her robe, with her purse on her wrist, " _Used_ to be the best? I never stopped, I've just been on hiatus, but now I'm back. Give me a dish: lasagna, ziti, spaghetti, calamari, I'll show you who _used_ to be the best."

"Sophia, it's the middle of the night," Blanche told her.

"So what?" Sophia asked, "I'll start my special 18-hour sauce, tomorrow night you'll have a dinner you'll never forget," and went over to the cupboard to find a saucepan.

"Ma, it's just that it's been so long since you _did_ cook," Dorothy said, "You were at Shady Pines, I know they didn't let you cook there."

"And whose fault is that?" Sophia replied as she slammed a large pot on the burner, "Where is it written that because you're a resident at an old age home that you can't cook? You don't think the people there would like my cooking better than that Cream of Wheat and fat free yogurt they shove down our throats 3 times a day?"

"I get the feeling it's going to be a long night," Dorothy told the girls.

* * *

The next day Dorothy, Sophia and Rose were cleaning the living room; Sophia dusted while Dorothy held the couch up for Rose to vacuum under it.

The front door opened and Blanche ran in in a huff.

"Girls! Girls!" she shouted, trying to be heard over the vacuum.

"What?" Rose asked as she shut off the vacuum.

"You will never believe what just happened," Blanche told them, "I was listening to the radio on the way here when I heard there was a contest for concert tickets, so I hit my brakes, found a payphone, and on the 5th try I got in…" she was grinning from ear to ear and practically jumping up and down as she told them, "I won 4 tickets to Madonna's next concert!"

"WOWEE!" was the unanimous verdict from the other girls as they started jumping up and down too.

But of course, it was Rose who had to ruin the moment by asking, "Who's Madonna?"

"She's a singer, Rose," Blanche said, "The most popular woman in the music industry today, and there's going to be a concert here in Miami next month."

"Oh Blanche, that is terrific!" Dorothy told her.

"Yes it is, next month the four of us will be 3rd row from the center stage," she explained, "The tickets are going to come in the mail next week."

"Well," Sophia was beaming, "Looks like Shady Pines burnt down at just the right time, now, this old lady is going to get out in Miami and _live_."

Dorothy waved her off and told the others, "You know, girls? Things are really starting to come together now, things are finally going good for all of us."

"They really are, aren't they?" Blanche asked, "You know, at first I didn't know if I could go on living without Harry, and then we were all getting along so well, but then Coco left too…but I think you're right, I think we're going to be just fine."

"Honey, we're gonna be better than that," Dorothy said, "We are going to be damn great and we're going to have fun doing it."

"Doing what, Dorothy?" Rose asked.

"Never mind," she replied.

"Well, all I can say is I'm so thankful that we all found each other and we're all together," Blanche told them, "Because I don't know who I'd rather go see Madonna with than my two best friends."

"Hey, what am I?" Sophia asked, "Chopped liver?"

"Of course you too, Sophia," Blanche said.

"Hey everybody, group hug!" Rose wrapped her arms around Dorothy and Blanche, "We really _are_ going to be alright, aren't we?"

"We sure are," Blanche agreed.


End file.
